Category Archives: Michael Bloomberg

Photo Highlights of The Decade



As the decade rolls to an end we’ve compiled a brief photographic retrospective with a few of our favorite photos of the 2010s.

Political foes Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo shake hands, seemingly at the urging of RWDSU’s Stuart Appelbaum, as they march in the 2016 Labor Day Parade. 9/10/16

Our decade highlight gallery is available here.

Our focus is on New York politics, both city and state, but the gallery includes other shots of New York.  Among the campaigns we’ve covered are the 2013 and 2017 mayoral races, the 2014 and 2018 gubernatorial races, congressional primaries in 2014, 2016 and 2018, the 2016 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary and the 2019 public advocate special election.  NYTrue.com began in late 2012, with mostly video and little photography in 2012 and 2013, so this is a somewhat truncated decade retrospective that covers 2014-2019.

Special Bonus – Unabridged Gallery:

For those of you who really love New York politics we have an expanded decade retrospective gallery with lots of great shots that didn’t make it into the decade highlight gallery.  Take a look, and a walk down memory lane, here.

We’ve included a few 2013 iPhone shots in a brief addendum at the end of the expanded gallery.

Our 2019 year in photos is available here.

All of our photo galleries are available here.

Let 1 Million Trees Bloom (Updated)



Million TreesNYC 11-20-15It was smiles and praise as the 108th and 109th mayors of New York City appeared together this morning in the Bronx.  Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio spoke at a ceremony marking the planting of more than 1 million trees in the City under the “MillionTreesNYC initiative.”  The program was launched during the Bloomberg administration, with inspiration and significant involvement by Bette Midler.

Bloomberg and de Blasio have rarely appeared together since de Blasio took office.  They recently crossed paths at the Al Smith Dinner, where Bloomberg delivered a funny, but stinging, “tribute” to the current mayor.  They previously shared a stage at de Blasio’s inauguration, which featured some biting critiques of the Bloomberg years.  Among those critiques was a speaker who referred to Bloomberg-era New York City as a “plantation.”  Today, however, they spoke of plantings, not plantations.

Bette Midler, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Council Member Mark Levine, Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver and  Executive Director of New York Restoration Project Deborah Marton also joined the ceremony, held at Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx.

Here are a few of our photos – our full photo gallery is available here.

Million TreesNYC 11-20-15

(Video on the continued page – click here.) Continue reading Let 1 Million Trees Bloom (Updated)

Republican Debate Report (Updated)



Update:

Here’s a segment with George McDonald and Joe Lhota discussing bike lanes and the Citi Bike program.  The audience was most animated and engaged on this topic, and clearly not fully in sync with either McDonald or Lhota.  The question was narrowly posed: “Are bike lanes dangerous?”

McDonald began by holding out his Citi Bike membership card, drawing a few mild boos.  He then unequivocally stated that he’s in favor of bike lanes, pivoted to a critique of “anybody [read: Democratic mayoral candidates] who criticizes the New York City Police Department for political gain” and concluded.

Lhota began with a lengthy critique of bike lanes, noting the importance of vigorous enforcement of bike safety laws and that “bike lanes do impede commerce” before stating that he’s “not opposed to the Citi Bikes program.”  (He doesn’t state whether he supports or opposes bike lanes.)  Lhota then conflated the Citi Bikes program with the death of a bicyclist unrelated to the Citi Bikes program, stirring consternation in his audience.    Lhota  closed by criticizing a lack of coordination among city agencies in implementing the Citi Bikes, without mentioning or directly criticizing Michael Bloomberg.

(John Catsimatidis attended part of this forum, but left before this discussion.)

                                       

At a candidate forum hosted by the Republican National Lawyers Association, Joe Lhota gave a pointed criticism of the Office of Emergency Management under Mayor Bloomberg.  OEM was created during the Giuliani administration and was the focus of significant energy and attention during that administration.

While Lhota has generally spoken highly of Mayor Bloomberg, he has nonetheless offered sharp comments on a number of specific actions and agency management issues under the Bloomberg administration.

Here is what Lhota had to say:

Comrades in the Struggle Against Surveillance (Updated)



Being surveilled is not a nice feeling.  New York State legislators know it, John Liu knows it, the New York City Muslim community knows it and now a broad swath of the Wall Street elite knows it.

In a curious twist, Bloomberg looms large in two* of these episodes:  Bloomberg the mayor in the police department’s surveillance of the Muslim community and Bloomberg the company in the surveillance of Goldman Sachs and other financial industry players.  Whether it’s a meaningful connection, or just coincidence remains to be seen.

In a startling story first reported by the New York Post, the New York Times has reported that “‘several hundred’ reporters” from

“Bloomberg News, the journalism arm of Bloomberg L.P., had for years used the company’s terminals to monitor when subscribers had logged onto the service and to find out what types of functions, like the news wire, corporate bond trades or an equities index, they had looked at.”

Continue reading Comrades in the Struggle Against Surveillance (Updated)

80 Acres, Walking Distance to Beach



In this report we visit Arverne East, 80 empty oceanfront acres in the Arverne section of Rockaway.  Sitting in a flood zone adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean and vacant for nearly 40 years with little infrastructure, it has many challenges as well as remarkable potential.

As the clock winds down on the Bloomberg administration, the City is pushing forward with an innovative program to restart development there.  The Department of Housing Preservation and Development, together with the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and the site developers, has opened a public design competition for the site.

We visit the site, talk with the City commissioner in charge of the effort and consider what it all will mean.

Watch.